1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to telecommunications and, in particular, to call party identification. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to regulating calls to caller and callee pairs according to third party criteria.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telephone service has created communication channels worldwide, and those channels continue to expand with the advent of cellular and other wireless services. A person can simply take a telephone off-hook and dial a destination number or press a send button and be connected to a telephone line around the world.
One problem created by telephone service is the intrusion of unwanted calls or the placement of calls to parties that are undesirable. For example, a parent may want to limit the parties to which a minor may place calls or to which a minor may receive calls. A parent may block certain numbers, such as “900” numbers from being dialed from a home telephone line. However, the minor may still place calls to those numbers from other telephone lines, such as a pay telephone.
In another example, more and more employees are carrying personal wireless telephones during the work day. While the business may gain some benefit from the employee having an additional communication interface, a personal wireless telephone may also serve as a vehicle for employees to receive or place calls during the workday that are undesirable to the employer. Currently, employers only have the choice of requesting employees to turn off wireless telephony devices during the work day.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide a method, system, and program, for regulating phone calls independent of the line from which a call is placed or received. In particular, it would be advantageous to regulate calls based on third party criteria indicating the identities of pairs of individuals between which the third party regulates calls.